Trees, that’s our garden, and leaves in the summer. We planted most of this about thirty years ago. There is an Irish yew tree, an old goat willow, holly trees, a sycamore, a walnut tree that must be 60 foot high, cherry trees, apple trees, ash trees, mountain ash, an elderberry tree, eucalyptus tree, two oaks, and a huge laurel bush at one end that is now tree sized.

Why? We were regularly pruning the trees and we plant perennials beneath them like poppies and geraniums and roses, plus a fig tree and wisteria and ivy everywhere. But for several years we didn’t actually own the garden, we rented it. Then the owner wanted to build on it, but we objected because we would have looked out onto a new house and the garden had become a natural place, with a pond and frogs, hedgehogs and the occasional fox. We have bluetits nesting every year and it’s home to house sparrows and other birds too.

Then we were in dispute and the owner would not let us tend the garden for about three years, so it grew wild and wooly. Eventually though, we bought the land, but by then the growth had got a bit out of hand. The land is where two houses used to stand. But we made it green. This is our way of lessening our carbon footprint…. I’m proud of what we grew!